Sweden begins construction of massive underground nuclear vault that will last 100,000 years

Sweden has broken ground on its ambitious $11 billion nuclear waste repository, where highly radioactive material will rest in an underground maze of tunnels stretching 60 kilometers — longer than the New York City subway's longest line. The sprawling network, which resembles an elaborate waterpark park design minus the fun, will take a decade to build before accepting its first radioactive deposits.

Barron's reports that the $11 billion project at Forsmark, 140 kilometers north of Stockholm, will start with two years of surface prep — including water treatment facilities and forest clearing — before workers begin excavating into bedrock to a depth of 1,640 feet.

Nuclear waste management company SKB will oversee this complex burial, where spent fuel will be sealed in copper and iron capsules designed to safely contain radioactivity for 100,000 years. Each massive canister will be welded shut and lowered through the elaborate underground network. Engineers will surround them with bentonite clay, a natural material that expands when wet to create a watertight, earthquake-resistant seal. When complete in the 2080s, the facility will house more than 6,000 canisters of spent nuclear fuel.

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